Hello all. I just picked up my 2009 Prius yesterday and i cannot believe what i have been missing out on! These cars are awesome and seeing 50mpg average is still blowing my mind. I traveled 180 miles today and averaged 50.5 mpg highway driving 65 mph (drafting semi's) with some rush hour stop and go traffic to help. Temp was about 50F. I think ive done pretty good for my first go round. I was wondering if there are any other things being a new owner i should know other then tire pressure that can continue to help me. Thanks and i look forward to continue to learn!
Congrats on the new Prius! Warm weather is supposed to improve MPG's. If that is true, I should get 100 MPG here in hades.
excellent! keep up the good work and welcome. look around, you'll find a wealth of info for improving mpg's. although, you've got a pretty darn good start!
If you can... slow down. Use cruise. And dynamic brake when u can. I just got my 09 two weeks ago and couldn't be happier with it. I set my cruise to 55mph and try my hardest to only use the electric traction motor in cities. I'm averaging 62 MPG currently
I look forward to the challenges of learning the prius and always trying to better my mpg. Coming from a history of muscle cars to a prius i didnt think i would enjoy the car as much as i am. I think the coolest part is how i feel like im interacting with the car. I havent felt this way with a car until now! Does anyone change the air filter to say a K&N or is the stock filter ok. Also, i was thinking about getting HID bulbs? Will this help or hurt and what brands are you guys running? Thanks for the replies thus far.
I put a K&N filter in my '07 Camry Hybrid and it did help the MPG's and it seemed to have more "spunk". In addition, it was not a big mess to clean and re-oil it, as I was led to believe. I was going to get one for my Prius, but after reading a few posts about it, I decided to hold off until more research has been done. I am not opposed to a K&N filter, by the way. I just spent a lot of money on the Prius and I don't want to do anything to screw it up. If Toyota recommends a standard (non-oiled) filter, then that is what I am going to stick with until there is enough evidence to the contrary. I can't speak for the HID bulbs, although I sometimes wish I had about a gazillion candle power spotlight to shine on the idiots who refuse to turn off their driving lights. I am thinking about adding a set of ventshades/ventvisors. I have them on my other vehicles and they do make a difference in the summertime here in hades. I mean, it still gets hot in the vehicles, but not as hot as when leaving the windows rolled up tight. My concern is that the MPG's might be reduced a tiny bit, but so far I can't find any evidence that it is affected by the ventshades. If you do add a K&N filter and it works fine, please let us all know....
